Archive for April, 2009

The first 100 days reveals the national dive into the socialist pool. I have been through this and I know how it will turn out. I lived in England in the eighties and early nineties. It was a time of high prices, high taxes, high unemployment and a nearly bankrupt economy on every level. Even the most basic government services were in desperate straits. Unemployment among the under 30s was 40%. The National Health Service all but gave up on those over 65. What we in America would consider basic emergency care was unavailable even in medium size cities. The Emergency rooms were there, but so understaffed that people routinely died who should have received care. As they would say in England, “we have equal access to waiting queues, not care” That was just the health service. Other services were in equally dire situations. The populist crowd wanted government to run business so it would be more fair–whatever that means. However, government just isn’t good at business. Social engineering has consequences for the economy when it gets too ambitious, and eventually the engineers kill the golden goose.

I just can’t get excited about Earth Day. Don’t get me wrong. I love the earth. However, Earth Day is a spiritual holiday. Earth is honored. Earth is reverenced. Earth is praised. Earth is given gifts. Earth is given service. Earth is, well, worshipped. On any other day, secular is the rule. If we’re going to go to the extreme of worshipping Earth, on this one day when the secular rule is set aside, why not worship the Creator of earth. Earth, after all, can do nothing. It doesn’t think, it doesn’t speak, it doesn’t create. God does everything. Doesn’t God deserve a day of worship for making this home for us we call earth. Then perhaps we’d take better care of it in honor of the One who created not only earth, but us as well.

There’s a Christian praise song which has in its chorus “Show me Your glory”. I don’t think the author of the lyrics knew what they were asking. If we really saw the glory of the Lord, we would die. We can no more survive God’s glory than we can survive a thermonuclear explosion. Our earthly bodies weren’t designed for heaven. Those who saw the Angel of the Lord (as opposed to the actual Glory of the Lord) fainted until revived and strengthened. Even Moses, who saw visions, couldn’t look on God and live. In our spirit, and later, with our new immortal bodies we shall see Him. And we shall know Him: God, who is Love.

Is there a God? Lots of people who don’t want to commit themselves to either belief or atheism, will just say “I don’t know.” Is this honest? An interesting way to approach this question would be to ask “Do you live your life as if there is a God, or do you live your life as if there is not a God.” An honest agnostic, who truly does not feel they know, at the present, whether God exists, would surely want to err on the side of what is right. If indeed God exists, they would want to please Him, and would study nature, philosophy, and world religions trying to discover what God is like. So, to avoid displeasing the possible God, they will seek out goodness and morality as far as their conscience reveals it to them, and keep searching for an answer to their question. If indeed the person is not honest, and is in fact a practical atheist, they will live their life for their own self-interest with never a concern for the existence of God, and they will not seek an answer to the question of God’s existence.

These two words seem odd being used together, but think about it. Either God made sex or he didn’t. If God made sex, and there’s every indication of design in the sexes and reproduction, then sex has a purpose. The creation account says “God made humankind in His image. Male and Female He made them.” It doesn’t take a genius to understand that male and female are made for each other, their bodies are made for the sexual act, and out of that comes the continuation of the human race. It would seem the purpose in the creator’s mind is family making. If one acknowledges this truly amazing wonder has to be more than some kind of blind chance occurrence, then one must conclude that God has plans and cares about His purposes. All other alternatives to family thwart his plans, whether it be artificial sex between same sex partners, the use and abuse of persons seen in all kinds of degrading sex, or the destruction of human life following human conception. If we humans say “my body”, “my life”, “my rights”, we ignore the wishes of the Creator in favor of our self satisfaction, and become either idolators who worship at the altar of self (“I decide whats right for me”) or functional, practical atheists.

During all the hoopla about human rights at Durban II, one can’t help but wonder where human rights come from. Who decides what rights people should have? Do the majority decide as in a democracy? If they do, their numbers give them the strength to decide for the minority. Do the elite decide rights as happened in communist dictatorships, monarchies and other central governments? If we believe some rights are due to all humans, where do we get that idea? Is it just an arbitrary human decision that changes with times and cultures?

In the United States our founders decided certain rights were “inalienable”, meaning not needing explanation and not to be taken away. Do people today realize our founders believed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were bestowed upon us humans by God? Today when so many people disbelieve God, question God’s existence, or otherwise live as though He doesn’t exist, where do they get the authority to declare what is a human right, who gets rights and under what circumstances? Its just the opinion of the majority isn’t it, the tyranny of the powerful. Without God, thats the best we get.

Without God, the right to life is determined by the powerful against the weak. If the weak are a nuisance, they can be dispensed with. Look at abortion, infanticide of disabled babies, euthanasia and the like. Without God liberty is nonexistent. Without God, there is no pursuit of happiness for all, just pursuit of self-interest by the powerful. Without God, human rights is as arbitrary and changeable as the winds of cultural fad.

Recently I toured a number of very beautiful homes. Some were so especially delightful, I felt upon exploring them that I had somehow truly come home. They almost felt like something I had once designed for myself, or a nearly forgotten home I’d long ago lived in and loved. They brought out such pleasant emotions! I believe the mansions God has promised–the ones Jesus said he is preparing for us in Heaven will be like that. We will love every detail of our heavenly homes, because Jesus knows every detail of what we love. Homes we have loved here may be a foretaste of our forever homes in Heaven.

The reason people reject Christ is the same reason we reject medical advice. We want to be well enough for the pain to stop, but not so well we have to give up our bad habits. We want enough religion to comfort us, especially when we are afraid, and when we think of our ultimate demise. But we don’t want Jesus who might change our lives, or (God forbid) take over.

What I really never hear anymore is a discussion on the reasons why the government got involved in marriage in the first place. After all, we see that marriage historically was usually a religious and family ceremony. The state’s interest has always been in its future. It is concerned with the generation to come and the continuation of the society and culture. The state’s interest has been protection for children by binding fathers to their responsibility to them, and protection for mothers who do make economic sacrifices in order to have children. Since homosexuals cannot bear children TOGETHER, the state has no interest in their marriage beyond some kind of recognition and a sharing of whatever financial advantages the state confers on married couples. Considering the financial advantages are supposed to result in offspring who become citizens of the state, the financial advantages which go to homosexual couples result in nothing for the state at all.

Homosexual couples can and do adopt children. However, they adopt children who will consequently never know what it is to have both a mother and a father. We already have a couple generation’s experience with what happens when children are raised without fathers. The societal breakdown is so great that if anything, the state might consider even greater incentives to heterosexual marriage in these communities. But to grant the incentives of marriage to a couple who can neither produce children nor provide mother and father or even grandmother and grandfather to children, is simply an investment with no return on the part of the state, however “fair” it may appear.

I have just finished reading the book of Job in the bible. He is a very familiar name in our culture, and even unbelievers have frequently heard of him and associate him with suffering. Job was a person who had literally lost everything but his life. He lost his children, possessions, health, and apparently the love and respect of his wife. His many, many questions are questions we ourselves have asked. His number one question, asked in different ways was “What did I do to deserve this?” He kept answering his own question in various ways, insisting he did nothing to deserve it. While that may have been true in the context of the story (Satan inflicted the suffering on Job, trying to prove to God that people only use God and do not love or trust Him), Job was trying to insist he was righteous, and of course that is not true. None of us are righteous. While we can’t understand God’s purposes in allowing our suffering , we can know that evil does not come from God, but only from the evil one. God only allows people to suffer in order to accomplish a purpose beyond our understanding. The book of Job shows us there are workings in the heavenlies that we cannot see or hear. It shows us that God does care about our welfare. The book of Job shows us that God somehow more than makes it up to us when we have suffered. It shows us that God is so far above our ability to comprehend Him that our inability to understand our suffering is a foregone conclusion. Don’t we trust him when He is doing what we perceive as good? We never question why he allows good things to happen to us. The only question remaining, is whether we will trust this magnificent, awesome, almighty God no matter what happens. The challenge is whether we will love Him. Thank God He came to us in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. We can know He understands our human weakness, our faulty understanding, our questions and our pain. He suffered more than any of us can imagine. And, really, we don’t even understand completely why Jesus had to suffer as He did. May God accept our praise and thanksgiving. He understands how limited even that can be, and He loves us as we are.